Clay Hill

Clarke County, Virginia

Clay Hill, an 1816 Federal-style home had endured many awkward additions and lacked many basic amenities. The owners wished to update and renovate the existing spaces and create generous new kitchen and living spaces that were respectful to, and balanced with the original ‘T’ shaped building. The design steps back all new components from the front façade while further minimizing their presence with lower roof lines and landscaping. Conceptually, the design was conceived with a story line placing a kitchen in a new, freestanding ‘original Summer Kitchen’ that was then linked back the main house through ‘later’ additions. The addition appears as a ‘bookend’ to the existing dwelling rather than an expansion of the main mass.

An existing garage was removed and replaced with a formal lawn that opened vistas and created an axial relationship to a new parterre garden and conservatory. A new carriage house garage was placed at a lower elevation and sited to reduce visibility and the amount of paved area.